World-leading research in Melbourne to transform industry

The Morrison Government is funding research with the potential to transform sectors, including manufacturing, energy resources and biotechnology.

The Government is providing:

• $4.86 million to a team of researchers led by The University of Melbourne to ensure business and industry can benefit from optimisation technology.

• $4.79 million to a team of researchers led by Monash University to expand structure-enhanced drug design.

Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, said the projects would have enormous commercial and medical benefits for Australia.

“These projects will focus on improving design functionality and drug discovery, while simultaneously training industry-ready world-class graduates in these fields,” Mr Tehan said.

“Our Government wants universities to be even more entrepreneurial and engaged with industry, and these projects involve strong collaboration and linkages with industry, ensuring our nation has more job-ready graduates.

“As part of our Job-ready Graduates reforms we provided an additional $900 million to establish the National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund – with a strong focus on investment in STEM industries – to support universities to produce job-ready graduates for their local industries and communities.

“We will provide a further $48.8 million for regional universities to partner with industry and other universities to boost their research capacity.

Senator for Victoria, David Van, said the centres would position Victorian universities as
world-leaders in their research fields.

“The University of Melbourne’s research will support businesses to address industry’s urgent need for decision-making tools. This research will increase Australian industries global competitiveness by reducing lead times as well as financial and environmental costs in addition to improving Australian Industry quality, efficiency and agility.” Senator Van said.

“Monash University’s research in structure-enhanced drug design will lead to an industrial expansion in drug discovery in Australia and, and advance our biotechnological capacity.

“The outcome of these research projects could potentially lead to significant commercialisation opportunities for the centres and their partner organisations, in turn supporting jobs and economic growth across Australia and in my home state of Victoria.

“It is great to see Victorian Universities leading the way in partnering with business to ensure research leads to commercial opportunities.

More information on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centres can be found on the ARC website.